Net Worth Report: December 2016 Edition

Happy New Years, everyone! I hope you had a great 2016 and an enjoyable holiday break!

December turned out to be a very expensive month as I was traveling internationally during this period. But, first let’s get started with the income!

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Income: $813.30

For December, I only had $813.30 in income. This is through two paychecks, one received on the 15th and one on the 30th. I had not received any additional income through per-diem as I was on PTO and was traveling internationally, which means no extra money to put towards my investments.

Expenses: $7,042.00

According to Mint, I had spent $7,042.00 in December. The reason the amount is so high is because when I was travelling, I was using my credit card to pay for purchases my friends were making as well. This allowed me to meet the minimum spend of my credit card at the time, which was a Chase Sapphire Reserved.

The Chase Sapphire Reserved promotion I received was 100,000 points after spending $4,000.00.

Because of this, my exact number of expenses might be a bit fudged for December.

While my expenses were relatively high because of traveling, it was an enjoyable and interesting experience that definitely broadened my horizon. I would definitely do it again, but I prefer sitting at home and playing video games to save money and be frugal.

My expenses have bit a bit weird ever since I moved back home to my parent’s basement (we don’t actually have one). I no longer have to pay $300 a month to share a room with a friend.

Additionally, thanks to my job, I no longer have to pay for gas as I rarely use my car (it was recently stolen as of 01/06/2017, more details soon) anymore. I still have to pay the loan back, but it is a 0% interest loan, so I won’t be rushing on that anytime soon.

Finally, since it was the season of giving, I had purchased two new smartphones for my parents (Huawei Honor 8) as their current phones were the first generation Moto G’s. Furthermore, I purchased myself a Moto G to take along when I go on my travels. I plan to document this on my Instagram as often as possible. So shoot me a follow if you are interested!

2016 Income: $38,008.00

For the year of 2016, I have made a total income of $38,008.00.

Keep in mind that this income does not account for 401(k) investments, IRA contributions, interest, or even taxable investments. The reason is because Mint doesn’t do a good job compiling all of this information.

2016 Expenses: $20,792.00

I had spent a total of $20,792.00 in 2016. That is about $8,292.00 above my expected spending for 2016, which was $12,500.00. The reason why I thought I would spend $12,500.00 was because I expected myself to live like a college student, but it was not that successful as most of my expenses were spent on eating out and traveling, which I do not regret at all.

Net Worth: $119,155.96

I ended the year with a net worth of $119,155.96 (shown below, you can click the image to zoom in). There was an increase of $3,342.90 thanks to my 401(k) contributions and the work the stock market has done for the month.

2017 Financial Goals

For 2017, I have a few goals that I would like to see myself achieve:

Spend less than $20,000 and downsize as much as possible.

Make my budget line-items more clear and not vague.

I went over this a little in my 2017 New Years Resolutions. But to simplify, I basically had to record every transaction I make and categorize them in a friendly format the second I make it.

Try to reach $200,000 Net Worth by the end of the year.

Recap

Overall, I did pretty well for 2016. My net worth increased from $46,708.41 to $119,155.96. That’s a total of $72,447.55!

It’s amazing because my base salary for the majority of the year was lower than that amount, which means I had saved a large portion of my salary and per-diem!

How did you guys do on December? Did you guys travel anywhere exciting or do anything fun for the holidays? What are your goals for 2017?

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Wow, that’s an amazing increase in your net worth in just one year. Congrats! I t just goes to show how much additional “side income” can affect your net worth, especially if you save all (or a majority) of it. Keep it up!